"Sometimes, you end up witnessing things that were never meant to be seen."
— Cal Walnner
18th July, 19xx
I sat in my office, calculating the month's budget while nursing the last cup of coffee I could afford. The month had gone far worse than expected. Not a single client had walked through the door—not even the jealous wives of adventurers who usually hired me to spy on their husbands' escapades.
Business was dead, and the rent was piling up.
I was running out of options. Returning to adventuring crossed my mind, and the thought alone made my chest sink.
I glanced at the clock and sighed.
"Eleven already…"
"Guess I'll head home," I muttered.
I started packing up—pulling down the curtains, rearranging the files, and shutting off the mana lamps. The silence pressed against me until the mana bell by the door rang.
Someone had entered.
A woman stood there in the dim light—tall, composed, and unmistakably out of place in a dump like mine. Her dark reddish hair framed a pale, refined face. She wore the kind of attire only nobles or their servants could afford. There was no hostility in her eyes, so I stayed calm.
"Are you Cal Walnner?" she asked, her tone poised, her gaze steady.
"Yes," I replied, straightening slightly. "That's me."
"I'm Miquella Vonsagen, a servant and representative of Lady Mary Valneria."
The name sent a chill down my spine. My heart almost skipped a beat.
The Valnerias—one of the most powerful and influential families in the kingdom. Just beneath the royal crown itself. People like that didn't come to places like mine unless something was terribly wrong.
"Lady Mary has heard of your work," Miquella continued. "Through maids and adventurers who've crossed paths with you. She wishes to hire you to locate a man named Rodeao Zerenandis—one of her close associates. He vanished three days ago inside the Margrave's Dungeon. The royal squad and dungeon patrol searched the area, but found no trace of him."
She stepped forward and placed a thick envelope on my desk, sealed with crimson wax bearing the Valneria crest.
"All the details are inside, along with an Adventurer's Permit for entry. Lady Mary has high expectations of you."
After she left, I sat staring at the envelope. A job from the Valneria family wasn't something you turned down—not if you wanted to keep breathing.
I broke the seal. Inside were two reports detailing the incident, an SS-class Adventurer's Permit, and ten gold Orions. The sight of the permit made me reminisce of my adventuring days. I stored the coins in my ledger and began reading.
There was nothing unusual in the reports—except for two things: the mana traces, and the floor number 13456.
The report stated Rodeao disappeared on July 15th while harvesting viliee sporacles on that floor. The royal squad found almost no mana residue. The case was marked as a dungeon anomaly.
Margrave's Dungeon was infamous for its unpredictability—estimated to be nearly 180,000 floors deep, though only about 75,000 had been explored. Unlike normal dungeons, its difficulty wasn't progressive. A floor fit for D3-ranked adventurers might be followed by one meant for A2-class elites.
Floor 13,456 was one of the unstable ones.
But the report didn't make sense. Even with an anomaly, there should've been some mana traces left. Even if Rodeao had been devoured by a monster, remnants of his energy would remain.
Unless… someone had erased his mana intentionally.
Only an extremely skilled individual could've done that.
My gut told me this case wasn't a simple disappearance—it reeked of something darker.
But with the Valneria crest stamped on my permit, backing out wasn't an option.
I leaned back in my chair, staring at the flickering mana lamp.
Tomorrow, I'd enter that dungeon again.